- Industry: Broadcasting & receiving
- Number of terms: 5074
- Number of blossaries: 1
- Company Profile:
The largest broadcasting organisation in the world.
Dispositivo usato per misurare il volume dell'acqua consumata da un nucleo familiare o da un'attività commerciale. L'addebito alla popolazione dell'acqua effettivamente consumata, piuttosto che il pagamento di imponibile fisso annuale, sta diventando sempre più diffuso nel Regno Unito ed è considerato come un incentivo per gli utenti ad evitare lo spreco dell'acqua.
Industry:Natural environment
Acid rain is simply rain with higher than normal acidity. Its main cause is emissions of nitrogen and sulphur compounds from burning fossil fuels to power transport, power stations, forest fires, fertiliser and industry.
Industry:Natural environment
The atmosphere is the name for the mixture of gases surrounding the earth and retained there by the planet's gravitational pull - our air, in other words. The atmosphere comprises the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere and the thermosphere.
Industry:Natural environment
Organic matter that can break down or decompose rapidly under natural conditions and processes is referred to as biodegradable. Garden and food waste, animal waste, and most paper products, as well as plastics derived from vegetable content, will biodegrade, but not plastic carrier bags and polystyrene cups, for example.
Industry:Natural environment
Biodiversity (a contraction of the phrase biological diversity) means the variety of life on earth, or within one particular ecosystem, in terms of the number of distinct biological species present. Tropical rainforests, for example, support a huge variety of species, so are highly biodiverse, while polar regions are far less so. Scientists worry that deforestation, such as that associated with planting crops for biofuels, animal feed and human consumption is reducing biodiversity. See also monoculture.
Industry:Natural environment
Carbon is the fourth most common chemical element in the universe, and carbon compounds - in other words, carbon chemically combined with other elements - are the basis of all known life forms on earth. Pure carbon appears in many apparently diverse forms, from diamond to graphite to charcoal, but it is much more commonly found in substances such as coal, oil, natural gas, wood and peat that we use for fuel. When we burn these substances to provide energy - either directly in our homes as heat, or in power stations to produce electricity - the combustion process produces 'oxides' of carbon, including the gas CO2.
Industry:Natural environment
CO2 is made up of the elements carbon and oxygen. It exists quite naturally in our atmosphere, as part of the carbon cycle. Everyday processes in the plant and animal world both add CO2 to the atmosphere and take it out. However, because it is a greenhouse gas - meaning it affects the temperature of the earth - the exact level of CO2 is important. Burning fossil fuels releases CO2 into the atmosphere, hence the anxiety that extensive use of these fuels is causing climate change.
Industry:Natural environment
The permanent removal of standing forests that can lead to significant levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
Industry:Natural environment
A fluorescent bulb or tube uses the flow of electricity to excite mercury vapour in an inert gas (argon or neon), which creates invisible ultraviolet light. A coating of phosphor on the inside of the glass then converts this into visible light - a process known as fluorescence. They have higher energy efficiency and longer life than traditional incandescent bulbs. See also CFLs/low-energy lightbulbs.
Industry:Natural environment
